Wednesday, October 18 (See?! It does pay to be fair!)

When I stopped by the house this morning, Mario was finishing up mowing the lawn. Not only did his crew remove all the trash from the yard, but they had dug out the flowerbed in front of the house as well. I was happy with how it looked, but I was a bit apprehensive since we had not agreed on a price, and I didn't want to be windshield-wiped (you know, like when those jerks wash your windshield at the stoplight despite you making wild "don't wash me" gesticulations so that you feel guilted into giving them money. Except I never feel guilty and sometimes spray my washer fluid. So I'm not a good Christian. Bah!)

I told Mario the yard look great and asked him if I owed him money for the flowerbed. He said, no it wasn't a big deal and there was no charge. I wanted to hug him! Not because getting a free flowerbed dug in and of itself is so thrilling, but it's so awesome to work with *nice* people. I told him that I'd definitely be calling him for more work.

I told J, and he said I should get Mario to bid on the landscaping. I really want to do it myself to save money, and since the hard part of digging the bed is already done, I don't think it'll be too difficult. The big obstacle is my black thumb. My parents can grow fruit-bearing treas from seeds and beautiful plants from cuttings. I, on the other hand, am guilty of killing cacti. My mother once gave me a Mother-in-law's Tongue that she had had for 10+ years. It's so named because of its sharped pointy leaves and its stubborn tenacity. A google search returned this description -- "The ultimate unkillable plant". Yep. I killed it. Good thing I have Mario in my back pocket...